June 21, 2008

A Fundamental Truth We Sometimes Overlook

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Luke 10:25-29

When life becomes clouded and confusing and the future seems scary and uncertain, we often begin reexamining the foundation of our faith. Even those who have already been found by Jesus Christ can “feel” completely lost and sense the need to reestablish their moral bearings in order that fear not take them farther off course. And so we start back at the beginning searching out those fundamental things about which we can be sure. Just as the most violent parts of my life storms have past, I have found myself asking questions like: Who is God? What is His character? And what does He want from me?

So, who is God? Well, He is a lot of things. He is the alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end. He is the Great I am. And God is love.

So, then God, or should I say LOVE, since that’s your name, “Who are we and what do you want from us?” We are those born of God, right?! So, what are those who are born of God suppose to do? What is to be the constant action of our lives when nothing else seems constant?

Since we are starting back at the beginning, let’s take a look at the number one thing God has asked of us and that which Christ reiterated in the New Testament as the first and greatest commandment to all those born of God: “To Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.” And then He said, that the second is just like the first (meaning that these two commands can not be separated from one another) ‘to love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12: 30-32. Since we can not see you Lord and you are not tangible, how do we first love you? He also says in His Word, “If you love Me, then you will obey Me.” Obey you how? By performing the second, which is just like the first, by loving our neighbors as ourselves. God asks us a very important rhetorical question in the book of First John when He says, “How can you love those whom you have not seen if you can not love those whom you have seen?” And no man, it says, has ever seen the face of God. So, we must love God by loving the ones we can see. I suppose those whom we can see are our neighbors. My neighbors are those “neigh” to me, through relationship or proximity, by choice, chance or providence. These are my neighbors. Jesus explains through a parable in the 10th chapter of Luke that the person who has mercy on another who is in trouble and nearby is the one who has loved his neighbor.

God has been showing me that the degree to which we show sacrificial love to our Christian sisters and brothers who are right next to us is the degree to which our love is real. It is often much easier to love those across the ocean than it is to truly love our spouses, our colleagues, our housemates, our classmates, our in-laws, our fellow parishioners, our superiors, or our subordinates....but these are our neighbors and our treatment of them reveals our true selves and the genuineness of our love for God! Convicting? Yes. Convicting for me – most certainly! But I want to know what is true so that my life will not be a lie and not get any further off course than this storm has already pushed me. I am still here on this earth and so God must have things for me to do. I expect my children to do the first things I ask of them first unless I tell them otherwise. God is not so unlike this in His parenting of us.

Since we are starting at the beginning, let’s be sure we even know what love is and how we are to administer this personification of God, Himself. How does God expect me to love? God has told us in His Word exactly what are the ingredients of real love. Love is first and foremost patient. Another word used for patience in the Bible is long-suffering. This is not talking about the kind of patient waiting that is easy, but the kind of waiting that is difficult, the kind which calls us to suffer for and with others for a long time! This is not unlike how God has long-suffered and is long-suffering with each of us. Did you come quickly to Him and honor each thing He has asked of you? I have not, but He has remained my friend and brother, forgiver and comforter. When I needed Him, He was still there waiting for me to repent and return. Love is first and foremost patient and our constant contact with those around us tests our patience far more than does our taking part in religious activities such as short term mission trips or sending a check to a ministry. As a former missionary to Russia, I can most assuredly tell you that it is more a test of godly love to see how we love the other missionaries with whom we are serving and living closely, than it is to love the natives who we see only occasionally. People annoy people eventually, and it is the kind of love which comes from the spirit of God that keeps us serving joyfully, without grumbling and complaining, those who are right next to us and who are inevitably annoying us. Keep in mind that we are probably annoying them just as much, if not more!

The Word says that this is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for our brothers and sisters. And what is our life? Are we willing to share our things and our time...for this is our life.... and be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving in the process, with those situated by God right next to us? For this is exactly what God has asked of us – to be living sacrifices.

Love is kind, it does not envy, or boast, it bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and love never fails...... What about those who hurt me and who are against me, how can I love them? If godly love was easy then it certainly would not be made up of the type of characteristics that God had listed in Corinthians. If it was easy it would not require us to suffer and “bear with” and to hope in what is not there now and to endure and stand against our inclination to keep a record of wrongs or refuse to become jealous of those who are being blessed even though they are hurting us.

I hear so many people talking about how they have fallen out of love with their spouses. Honestly, the truth is simply that one can not fall out of love because love is certainly not something which one can fall into in the first place. Falling is far too easy and involuntary, and it can happen without any effort at all. The love of God to which He has called us takes far more effort than that. It is at least more like a stepping up than a falling into. It is when we think we are falling out of love that we actually are given the chance to love with a godly love in the first place. It is when the suffering comes and the reason to keep a record of wrongs takes place that we are presented with the opportunity to love as God loves.

So, who are we to love? Our neighbors. Yes, and our enemies. They wouldn’t be our enemies if they had not been near enough to us at one point to be our neighbor. Right?! How are we to do this – to love the ones who despises us and harm us? We do this through the power of the Holy Spirit of course and by choosing to go to God for help. For those people whose enemies are truly not safe for them to be around, then it is just a matter of praying to forgive them. Forgiveness can come before the repentance of the wrongdoer. Until repentance comes on the part of the sinner then relationship is not possible because two are not living in the light. Forgiveness will free the forgiver. There is certainly enough pain in this life without me harming myself more by holding on to my own bitterness and unforgiveness which the Word says will dry up my bones. On the cross, Jesus said, “forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” That is when Jesus forgave us, and performed His greatest act of love towards us, before we even realized what we were doing something to harm and hurt ourselves, others, and God. We are to pray for and implore blessings on those who persecute us and speak wrongly against us? Matthew 5:42-44

Let us stop fooling ourselves into believing that we would love the people in Africa or China more than we love the ones in our communities, homes or offices? The test of love is right now with those who are right in front of us. Don't ask God to enlarge your territory until you properly love the ones already in your land because more people and more places will just make you more responsible before God. In my devotional reading yesterday, “Echoes of Eternity” Hal Helms writes “Be at peace with your neighbor. Do not allow opinions to wound and separate you one from another. Be careful to fight on the right front, and do not be tricked into trying to win your point. This is important.”

Comments

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OUCH! I got my toes stepped on! :-) I needed to hear this RIGHT NOW! You may not minister to anyone else, but I want you to know that you hit me square between the eyes! My husband and I are debating another adoption right now and I'm not loving him as I should through this! It's the first time in our 12 year marriage that we haven't seen eye to eye or at least close enough to make it work on something big. It's a big painful ordeal right now. Thank you for smacking me!

Well this is certainly a good spanking for us moms that get so busy doing good that we can neglect all the things right under our noses that need attention. I'm involved in orphan ministry, we are debating adopting one more child.......you've given me alot to think about. Orphan ministry is a huge calling on my life, but am I taking care of my neighbor? I'm not sure I even know how to answer that. I'm definately way more involved in helping orphans in China rather then working here at our local homeless shelter. But I don't think that was your point exactly?
You've just given me alot to digest, to really examine why I do what I do and if I'm doing a good job caring for those right under my nose.
Thanks for making me think.
Patty Smith
www.bringingjoytojingmen.blogspot.com

I just got an email from the Urban Homemaker and I wanted to share something she had in her email. She lost her husband, who was quite young, to a heart attack just a few weeks ago. This is something she shared and I thought it was particularly applicable.

Thanks. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing God works even through tragedy. (As I am sure you already know)
All of this is what I needed to hear...especially "The test of love is right now with those who are right in front of us. Don't ask God to enlarge your territory until you properly love the ones already in your land because more people and more places will just make you more responsible before God."

I could go on about how I found your blog or why this is important to me...but somehow none of it really matters.